(KCEN) -- The secret to treating millions of cancer patients might be hidden in a mushroom.
Lisa Clinton shares her gift teaching children on the ice.
"Skating gives me a sense of exhilaration," Clinton says.
And this is how she feeds her soul.
"It gives me an opportunity to express myself."
Then came breast cancer.
"Once I was diagnosed I kind of shut everything down."
Clinton is convinced she is back on the ice today because after her surgery, she refused chemotherapy and turned to Bastyr a natural healing university, in the middle of a ground breaking investigation.
Dr. Leanna Standish says, "We consider cancer a failure of the immune system, so when Lisa came here after being diagnosed with breast cancer she wanted to know what she could do."
Dr. Leanna Standish decided to introduce Lisa to the turkey tail.
A small mushroom commonly found in northwest forests that physicians in other parts of the world have been using for centuries to boost the body's immune system.
"When I measured her immune system when she came here, it wasn't in ideal shape," says Dr. Standish.
Researchers at Bastyr got permission from the FDA to study turkey tail's healing qualities.
According to the doctor, "When they are ingested, they stimulate immune cells that line the intestines and then those cells stimulate other immune cells all over the body."
So far the treatment is boosting Lisa's immune system and her outlook and her chances for being a common site for years to come.
